


Of Days Gone By

by cattesaber



Series: Time Passes [1]
Category: Parahumans Series - Wildbow
Genre: Age Regression/De-Aging, Gen, Memory Loss
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-31
Updated: 2020-11-21
Packaged: 2021-03-08 23:26:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,844
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27294898
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cattesaber/pseuds/cattesaber
Summary: Sometimes your power will protect you, sometimes it won't.Rebecca wakes up in the future.
Series: Time Passes [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2025128
Comments: 6
Kudos: 51





	1. Chapter 1

The city swung upwards in towers, different than what she’d ever seen before. Not too different, even now. They were forever made of concrete and steel, windows stretching across the skyline. The future was here, but mostly in the little things. It was in the posters and the billboards, parahumans dressed up and smiling. The phones with glass screens that didn’t have any buttons, and in the fashion people wore walking across the street.

It was New York, a place she’d never been before, in a time long after she should have died.

No one noticed the young teenager tread up the stairs and slip into the museum, hands tucked into the pockets of her baggy hoodie. There wasn’t any entrance fee anyway, the overstuffed merchandise store making up for any lost profits. It was more like a showcase than a museum, propaganda dripping from the walls.

In the middle of the entrance hall a large sign hung over the room. The shining silver words of _Parahuman Response Team_ around a shield with wings loomed, showy. Welcoming.

Rebecca had only been in this new world for a few days, but the icon was already familiar. In a way she was glad - this wasn’t the worst case scenario she had dreamt up. Capes could have not been secret forever, and this was better than outright war and wastelands.

Even the capes of the future were familiar now, the top capes memorised. Their names were written in the signs too, Eidolon, Legend -

Next to them was the sight of the name chosen by Contessa and her, _Alexandria_ in bold letters. The future version of her was alive, even in this time. It was - amazing.

It would have been cruel, six months ago, to joke that she would make it to the twenty-first century. She’d only found out how long the doctors had guessed she’d have after she drank the vial, but… terminal cancer. The end had been in sight, even if she’d hated it.

Rebecca glanced at the archway into the Alexandria exhibit. She turned away from it instead, looking to Hero’s. Nothing would make her ever tell of the almost gleeful smile she’d had after hearing his name for the first time. _Hero_? A very - descriptive name.

She wondered if Hero would be renamed Villain if he switched sides or if they’d let him keep it.

His armour was cool. Shining and golden, very _heroic_ looking - and the grin on his face made him look nice. Approachable. Real - or propaganda? When did they meet in the future? Were they friends? Rebecca looked over the information written about him, taking it all in. She took one last glance at the glimmering, smiling figure and turned.

That was the thing about being alone in the future - she didn’t know who her allies were, and who she needed to avoid. Or even why Cauldron wasn’t messaging her, she knew they could if they’d really wanted to.

The museum wasn’t that busy, not really. Only a few people, a couple groups hanging around on a Monday afternoon. No one looked at her. Maybe she was passing for older than she was again, or maybe they just didn’t care. It was still busy enough she didn’t stand out, voices a distant murmur, loud enough that she couldn't hear her footsteps on the tile floor

The picture of Eidolon didn’t have the same undertone as Hero’s. He seemed to slouch a little, even as he tried to stand tall, and the way his mask covered his face made him seem... blank. Yet he was heroic, able to stand and fight capes Rebecca had heard enough about to hate. In the videos the costume softly glowed, a beacon of hope.

She wanted to know more about him - well, she wanted to know more about all the people she worked with. The Protectorate founders, as they were called. All four of them.

Rebecca frowned. She tugged her hoodie - she stole it, but what else was she meant to do, wear a too-big costume around a future she didn’t know? - down a little, and moved on.

The next exhibit was _hers_.

Alexandria smiled in the photos, standing tall and confident, her arms crossed. It was her, and yet not really. This Alexandria had lived through entire life she hadn’t, and people change over time - she doubted she was the exception. The words on her plaque were glanced over, some of the victories Alexandria had catching her eye, the details washing over her.

Rebecca quickly moved on, her hands twisting inside the pockets, enough that she felt her thumb go straight through. It was the one bad thing about her strength, and immediately she stilled her hands. Couldn’t ruin one of the few pieces of clothing she had, even if it was a little too big.

Lastly, Legend. The final tribute in this part of the hall. The leader of the Protectorate, and one of the founders. There was nothing really saying why he was the leader, but glancing at the picture of him she kind of understood. The information about him, the videos too, all helped. He was warm. Legend smiled a lot, encouraged people - was just _nice_. That might have been why Hero was the second in command, too. They both seemed similar like that.

“Rebecca.” Someone called out from behind her, a man, a stranger, _of course_ -

She _startled_ , turning on her heel, just keeping it to non-cape levels. There was a man behind her, who - knew her? She stared at him, willfully silent. He looked at her, confused and open, a soft unknowable emotion in his eyes.

“We’ve been looking everywhere for you. Do you know me? I don’t know what time the cape de-aged you to.” There was a long pause as he waited for her to answer, and he smiled, gently. “Yeah that’s - I’m Keith, we work together.”

The man - Keith - gestured behind her at the picture of Legend. It took a millisecond for it to click, and a little longer for her to figure out what to say. “How did you find me?”

“Thinkers and tinkertech,” he admitted, “we know you won’t be hurt by anything, but - we didn’t want to leave you alone. Eidolon though we should be worried about the damage you would do, but, you know.”

“The de-aging?” Rebecca asked. She watched him, noting all the little things he was trying to do to make her comfortable, like how he hadn’t stepped any closer after she’d jumped. At least this part of the room was empty, no one able to hear their quiet voices.

“Can last up to a couple of weeks depending on the person,” he smiled again, reassuringly, “but it never sticks.”

Rebecca breathed, in and out. Maybe Keith and whoever else would give her a squeaky clean view of the current time, or try to keep her from going outside their base but - she needed more answers about everything than that were publicly available. It helped that he had told her his secret identity. Rebecca was very good at telling when people were lying, now. She nodded, and took a step forward. “You want me to come with you.”

“Please Rebecca. I know we’re - I am - a stranger, but -” he paused, thinking out his words, “I’m friends with other you. And - if it helps, I know Doctor Mother too.”

Rebecca took another step forward. “Where are we going?”

Keith gestured into the distance, “Protectorate New York Headquarters. Where I work. Only a short journey away.”

That sounded sensible enough. Rebecca was - silently, secretly - curious about the insides of the Protectorate. She nodded again, and got into step with him as he turned and headed to the museum exit. Hopefully now she could learn more. And maybe, _maybe_ \- meet her future friends.


	2. Home Base

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A flight.

They walked together, going swiftly down the street. No one seemed to notice them. Everyone on the go or minding their own business. Nothing about them was interesting to these strangers.

Every movement she saw, each small twitch of muscles under the skin, taught her more about the man who called himself Legend.

Rebecca wasn’t Alexandria. No one would treat her the same as the veteran hero. What little she knew about Alexandria - strike squads and fighting villains - implied no one dared hide things from her. Yet as the leader, Legend had that power, perhaps even to her. Even if he didn’t, right now the people in this future were in the perfect place to lie to her face and little white lies were always _alright_ , morally.

Or so they said.

They turned down a damp, dark alleyway, only lit by a buzzing neon sign near the front of it. It was meant for dumpsters, not a walkway, and smelt like it too. Far enough down it to be hidden from the view of the street, Keith turned to her.

“You’ve done great so far,” he said, rummaging in his pocket as he talked, “but you may not know yet how vital it is that you keep your identity secret. You have enemies, and if they can’t punch you out, they’ll have to figure out a different way. This is too close to them having a different way.”

He pulled out a black domino mask from his pocket. It felt like plastic in her hand, but not something cheap. It felt fine enough on her, covering down to her cheekbones without limiting her vision. Legend’s mask was different than hers, being the same as it was in the pictures, a more exact fit to his face. As he put it on he seemed to stand a little straighter, jaw a little more set.

“You can’t call me Keith like this,” he said and Rebecca lifted her eyebrows, but he didn’t seem to notice. “And you’re Alexandria - or would you prefer something else?”

That was the question, wasn’t it? She was Alexandria but she didn’t feel like it - she hadn't done anything yet. Her time as a cape was measured in months, not years.

“Alex is better,” she told him, half a suggestion, half a demand.

Legend simply nodded, turning away from her for a moment. “Follow my lead,” he said, “I know the way, and have the credentials to enter.”

Then, easily, he floated upwards. Rebecca let herself smile, and let the feeling of _light_ bubble up. She never dreamt about flying before all of this, but it truly made her feel alive, like she could do anything. Rebecca hoped that even Alexandria had never gotten used to the feeling of being _more_ , of _flying_.

New York glittered from above, sun shining off the windows. It was beautiful. She didn’t forget things anymore, not with the improvements to her brain. It was good that this was something she would remember forever.

* * *

Alex dropped onto the roof without a sound. Moving, flying was easy. It was harder to be weighty than it was to simply float up. Airy buoyancy filling her very being. Legend didn’t seem to deal with the same feelings - or was just used to it by now, by the crunch of his boots on the floor.

Or - the roof, to be exact.

It wasn’t empty, two people standing guard outside a door leading in. Both of them stood a little straighter, one inching his finger over the trigger of the gun. She didn't recognise the make of it, or think she’d seen one like it before, but a gun was a gun. Even one with a tank attached. It wasn’t a flamethrower, she knew that much.

Legend already had a keycard in his hand, offering it to the guard to scan. It flashed green within a second. No one said anything as she followed in behind him, the PRT officers dismissing her as not a threat.

What they entered was clearly an office building, but an exotic one. It was hybridized with something more militant if she were to guess, small objects sticking out in her vision. There were a lot of cameras. Stripes of colours, almost perfectly straight ran across the walls. Most of the doors bore no markings, but the door they entered from was outlined in blue. Directional? Maybe. Guiding in some way, likely some sort of organisational, or a way to show departmental separation - Rebecca drew her thoughts away from it, even as they became rooted in her mind.

They didn’t go far into the building, passing only three doors before Legend stopped, and looked at her. “I need to change, I’ll only be a second or two.” He waited for her to acknowledge his statement, then upon receiving a nod, he was _gone._

Legend was fast. Faster than her, maybe. He was being serious when he said he’ll only be gone for a second or two. She counted.

Blue in the corner of her vision announced his return. She couldn’t help but stare, This was the man she’d seen in the photographs, the hero. Lighting motifs, shoulders back, back straight. He looked the part, and if what they said about him was true, then a real hero with it. There was a flash of relief over his face that she was still there. He touched her shoulder, a tilt to his head and a smile on his face.

“They might be surprised,” he said as they started walking again, side by side, “when they see you, I mean. You’re different since they’ve seen you last.”

“Younger, you mean,” Rebecca pushed her shoulders back. “Who are _they?_ ”

“Hero, Chevalier, several other capes and at least two directors,” Legend nodded as he talked, gesturing to air, “Eidolon, if the other situation is completely under control. We need to make sure no one else is de-aged.”

“Chevalier?” Another cape, one important enough to be named, but not in the museum yet.

“A graduated ward. He was already working nearby and thought he would be helpful when this happened. He was right - he looks up to you, too.” Legend grinned, and the faint lines on his face deepened. If she was the age she was meant to be, and he was about her age, he would be about thirty, wouldn't he? Working in this new world like she had, for as long as she did.

Rebecca fell silent not having anything to answer him with, and instead tucked her hands into her hoodie pocket. A lot of the lines on the wall here were yellow, outlining almost half of the doors. It was quiet, a movie would say something like ‘almost too quiet’, but this was real life. You couldn’t really trust it to act the same. Real life wasn’t known to be neat, or easy, or bland.

If things were as they seemed, nothing would happen. If they weren’t… she’d had enough time to figure out she was really hard to hurt.

Whoever was in there would think they knew her, how she acted, what they wanted her to do. She wasn’t _Alexandria,_ not yet, she didn’t have her memories or experiences to be that person. People reacted badly to things they didn’t expect, whether it was sobbing down the hallway and not expected to be heard, or nervous smiles and whispered plans.

Finally they stopped outside a door, seventh door on the left, outlined in yellow and purple, closed up tight. Legend patted her on her shoulder, a serious attempt at encouragement on his face.

“Well,” he said, hand on the door handle as the light flashed green, “you’ll be a happy surprise to everyone!” He pushed it open, the crack of voices from inside almost ringing out, filling the hallway which had been so silent moments before.

“-find a single _teenage_ girl in the middle of New York-”

“-thinkers are there for a reason-”

“-identity is still classified beyond-”

Legend strode in, voices dying down quickly with his presence. Alex followed behind him, arms at her side, back straight. She didn’t react to their eyes on her, darting between her mask and her hoodie, the serious look on her face. She didn’t even twitch - they didn’t mean anything to her, not really.

She gently, so gently now, touched the door and pushed it closed behind her.

Alex observed the group gathered around the table. Legend had already approached them, one hand in the air as he gestured for quiet from them all. The parahumans were obvious, they were the flashier people at the table, wearing masks and bright colours. A man in silver and gold armour, hands rested on the table, a woman in blue looking at her, not Legend. The directors only had plain suits, solid coloured, mostly black, and no extravagance in the design. Even their ties were unadorned.

When they were silent Legend motioned towards her.

“There’s no need to go searching for Alexandria anymore. I’ve found her.”

There wasn’t an uproar, even as everyone turned to look at her. She could feel their eyes on her and just stared back, stoic. The question now was - what did they want from her?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to Snap for beta-ing! (Even if you did try to sneak in a sentence about Legend wearing sunglasses and a leather jacket to make him 'cooler'.)


End file.
